Healing
by SonicH2O
Summary: Among the survivors of Oceanic flight 815's crash are Katherine Austen, one of the worlds top spinal surgeons, and Jack Shephard, a wanted fugitive being returned to the United States for trial-Jate AU


_This is the second story option I'm considering for my newest ongoing since I finished writing Redemption, the other is called New Dawn-check them out, review both and let me know which you want to see as priority, if you think I should continue both/either/neither etc._

_enjoy_

* * *

Jack cursed softly under his breath as he finally pulled the handcuff off his wrist. Sitting in the jungle without anything to use as a pic he'd been forced to pull them off his wrist the hard way; without opening them. He felt a layer of skin peel off his hands and he hissed, knowing he had to get out to the plane wreck. The sound of the engine was loud in his ears, but not loud enough to drown out the deafening 'pop' as he felt a bone break in his hand from the cuffs. With his hands finally free he glanced down at his side "damn it," he muttered, someone was going to have to sew that up. Swearing again he popped his finger back into place as he had many times before, rubbing his sore wrist as he staggered onto the beach and into hell.

The whir of the engine was louder now and it mixed with agonized cries for help and screams of fear. "Help!" he heard a man yell, waving his arm from under a piece of wreckage. Jack winced as he tried to lift what he thought was the wheel of the plane off the man; the tearing pain in his side made it impossible.

"Hey!" he yelled, pulling three other men over, gesturing to the man below him. With their added help he managed to pull the man out, shaking his head as he pulled his tie off, using it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

Kate woke in a daze, shifting she felt sand below her. She groaned softly, her head pounding hard. She shot up quickly as the last few moments came back into her memory, wincing hard as she did, dizzy. The engine and screaming processed in her mind a second later and she turned around, letting out a small gasp as she stood to her feet. She had to help them she realized dazed, she was one of the few that could. She shook her head, trying to clear the dizziness and ran into the inferno. The crash was hot, some parts of the plane seemed to be on fire, and she coughed as smoke filled her lungs.

"HELP! Please HELP me!" she heard a feminine voice yell. Glancing over swiftly towards the water she saw a very pregnant blonde doubled over, holding her stomach. Contractions she thought darkly, running over to the woman.

"How many months pregnant are you?" she asked the woman.

"I'm…I'm only 8 months," she said in her thick Austrailian accent, obviously petrified.

Suddenly an explosion rocked them both, as the engine exploded. She reassured the pregnant blonde, glancing over at a young boy trying to give CPR to an older black woman. Kate frowned, knowing he was trying to help, but irritated at his lack of knowledge. Hoping she wasn't going to be to late, she called a large man with curly hair over.

"I need you to take her away from these fumes," she said calmly to the man who looked as dazed as she felt and even more petrified, "Call me if her contractions are closer then 3 minutes apart okay?"

He looked ready to pass out, "Oh you've got to be kidding me…" he said quietly. Kate resisted the urge to role her eyes, bolting off towards the woman who wasn't breathing. "Hey! What's you're name?" the man called after her.

"Kate!" she yelled not bothering to turn back. Glancing over towards the rest of the rubble, she was relived to see a dark haired man in a suit taking charge, undoing his tie as he bent down, presumably to help someone else. If they made it through all this, she would have to thank him. He looked like he knew what he was doing, so it was one less injury she had to worry about correcting.

"Stop," she said, putting her arm on the man, "Her heads not tilted back correctly, you're blowing air into her stomach," she explained.

"What…I'm a life guard I'm certified to do this…" he said, still shell shocked from the crash.

She offered him a small smile, "I'll do it," she said, putting her hands on the woman's chest to begin compressions.

"Maybe we should do that pen thing…" the man said half out of it. Kate looked at him, tilting her head confused as she pressed down on the womans chest, counting under her breath, "The pen in the throat…" he trailed off, gesturing to his neck.

She offered him a small smile, knowing that on any other day his idea would have made her laugh. "Good idea," she lied, needing to concentrate, "Why don't you go find me one okay," she said. He nodded, staggering to his feet to go find a pen, hearing him yelling for a pen over the screams until he was out of ear shot. She blew air into the woman's mouth. "Stay with me," she whispered, compressing her chest again. The woman coughed and gasped as she opened her eyes. Kate's shoulders sagged in relief, temporarily allowing herself a moment of happiness. At least one more person would live to see rescue.

The moment didn't last as she heard the crack of metal snapping, looking over her eyes went wide in horror as she saw the wing of the plane start to teeter precariously back and forth. Glancing down she swore, staggering to her feet as she saw the large man and pregnant woman. She made a step towards them, stopping as she saw the dark haired man from early vault over a piece of wreckage waving his arms wildly at them, "Move MOVE! Get her UP! Get her out of there!" he yelled as they looked at him bewildered. Glancing up they saw and instantly mobilized, the man half dragged them away from the area, covering the pregnant woman with his body as the wing crashed causing yet another explosion.

She covered her eyes, falling back to the ground from the force of the blast, letting out a breath of relief when the smoke cleared and she saw the man get to his feet. She frowned though, seeing a flash of red on his white shirt as the wind wiped back his dark suit jacket. He covered it quickly before either the man or woman saw though, offering them a smile before moving on to help the next victim. Hearing more cries for help Kate snapped out of it. They needed all the able hands they could get helping out; she'd talk to him later about his wound.

Kate sighed, sinking to the ground against the base of a tree an hour later, staring at a man with a large piece of shrapnel in his chest. He was in bad shape, and if rescue didn't come…he wouldn't make it. She glanced around camp, glad to see an Arab man and an Englishman in a hoodie were adding more wood to the fire. She rubbed her hand over her face irritated; so many people had lost their life today. They'd saved a lot, but there were at least twenty more bodies in the fuse lodge, and at least 6 who had died when they were thrown from the plane. In total, there were a little over 40 survivors.

She'd set up the infirmary on the edge of camp, not wanting to further upset people. She sighed, turning to the man with a tourniquet on his leg, pausing as she remembered that the man who had helped him had been injured. She frowned, glancing among the survivors not seeing him, turning the other way, she saw him on the edge of the woods, glancing over his shoulder as he went into the jungle. He can't really be going to fix that wound up himself can he, she wondered, amused and concerned at the same time. She wiped the blood off her hands and pulled hand sanitizer out of a nearby carry-on; thankful that people were so afraid of germs on airplanes. She started after him, finding him on his knees in a clearing with a small thing box with a needle and sewing thread, along with two single shot cases of alcohol that were presumably from the plane.

Seeing him now when he wasn't running around madly trying to help people she could see he was attractive. His cropped dark hair and tall masculine frame made him a slightly imposing figure. He grunted as he pulled off his black suit jacket, and she winced seeing the huge red stain across that outer layer of clothing. He'd lost a lot of blood if it had stained through that much; adrenaline was probably the only thing that had kept him up after the crash. He pulled off that layer, wincing as he moved his shoulders back to role the button down shirt off, revealing a white t-shirt below it. She swallowed despite herself as she watched his muscles flex from the effort, especially around his peculiar tattoos on his shoulder. He moved to peel the shirt off over his head and grunted in pain, unable to move his arms that way. He tried again grunting and again failed, swearing loudly.

"Need some help?" she asked concerned. He looked at her startled.

"I'd do it myself, I just can't reach," he said, sounding irritated. She moved up to him, and helped him remove his shirt, smiling as he suppressed another hiss of pain. She winced sympathetically as she surveyed the long jagged cut on his back. She frowned as she found her eyes roving over the rest of his back, seeing at least 6 other angry looking scars on it.

"You the doctor I was hearing about?" he asked her a moment later, snapping her from her thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm a spinal surgeon," she said quietly, putting alcohol onto her hands for sanitation, and without warning onto his cut. He winced. "Sorry," she said quietly, "But this is all gonna hurt," she added apologetically.

He nodded, "I know," he let out a ragged breath, "I've had worse," he added with a laugh that was cut short as the needle entered his back.

Half way through sewing it up and Kate had to admit she was impressed, not many people took stitches this well, especially without it being numb. He laughed when she told him so. "Fears a funny thing," he said quietly, licking his lips deep in thought. "I spent some time down in South America…relief work in some isolated villages," his brow furrowed, "And one day this truck pulled up, and everyone was screaming," he hissed as the needle entered again, "and they took this little girl out of the back seat, she'd been shot in the side," Kate swallowed hard, " and the only doctor around for miles was in another village, she wasn't going to make it if we waited for her…" he said quietly, a tear running down his cheek at the memory, "So they asked me to," he said, almost to himself, "And standing there with a pair of tweezers in hand, ready to stick um into that little girls side…the fear was just…so real," his voice cracked, "So I made a choice. I let the fear in, let it take over, but only for 5 seconds," he laughed," that was all I was gonna give it," he sniffed, "So I did. And then I got the bullet out, sewed her up and she was fine," he smiled and looked at her, "After that, having someone's life in you're hands what's there to be afraid of right?" he said, smiling at her.

She chuckled softly, cocking her head slightly in surprise; not many people who weren't surgeons understood that. She returned his smile and finished stitching him up. She helped him pulled the buttoned shirt back on along with the black jacket, "We'll find you something less formal," she said jokingly and he laughed lightly. "I'm Kate by the way," she said extending her hand as they walked back towards the beach.

"Jack," he said, taking her hand, and Kate surpassed a shiver, feeling his big callous hand take hers.

"It's nice to meet you Jack," she said with a small smile. He returned it, his deep brown eyes sparkling happily. "You too Kate," he replied.

* * *

_As you can tell from Jack's story, back stories aren't going to be exactly the same. Many similar elements, but some things will be a bit different, more or less to keep this from getting TOO boring lol._

_So, let me know what you think. _

_6 reviews for a second chapter I guess_


End file.
